Microsoft Finalizes Nokia Buy Amid Rumors of New CEO

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft announced the official purchase of Nokia's handset business, a €5.44 billion (US$7.5 billion) deal first announced in September 2013. Rumors also place Rajeev Suri as Nokia’s next CEO.

“The acquisition of substantially all of the Nokia Devices and Services business by Microsoft has reached completion, following approval by Nokia shareholders and regulatory authorities,” Nokia EVP Stephen Elop said in an open letter.

A number of senior executives -- including Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen, and Chris Weber -- are expected to transfer from Nokia to Microsoft. The deal will involve the transfer of 25,000 people to Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in manufacturing, assembly, and packaging of products. As announced previously, Microsoft will not acquire the factory in Masan, South Korea; and the factory in Chennai, India, will stay with Nokia due to the tax liens on Nokia’s assets in India.

While Nokia officials said talk of the new CEO was speculation, Reuters reported that 46-year-old Suri has “been widely considered the leading candidate” following his part in helping the network division, Nokia Solutions and Networks, return to profitability.

Microsoft will also pay €1.65 billion ($2.2 billion) to license many of Nokia's patents on terms varying between four and ten years. Microsoft is going to make available to Nokia up to €1.5 billion ($2 billion) in funding options.

That was their best option since a little longer they could be heading to bankruptcy. At least now, they have cash to build a new future. For the people of Nokia nation, it could be very humiliating how they lost it.

Considering that Microsoft has not been very big in the world of mobile computing, and actually this is its first dabble in actual mobile device manufacturing (although there have been a number of windows phones made before particularly by HTC and Nokia) this move should give it the much needed boost to catch up with the 2 horses at the helm. Of course that will only come true if they come up with a great strategy and execute it properly though even that should not be too difficult considering that Nokia already has a strong foothold on the Smartphone market particularly within the third world economies.

@Selinz, according to official reports, along with the purchase and acquisition of the Devices and Services business from Nokia, the company will also retain the latter's employees who number about 25,000 so no worries about loss of jobs. In Nokia's former CEO will be the one heading the new mobile device manufacturing branch of Microsoft and has already moved in following the completion of the sale. Anyway all this was to be expected since it is the only practical move that makes sense both financially and in terms of overall efficiency.